62% of Israelis Care About Diaspora
Substantial majorities of Israeli Jews believe they share a fate with Diaspora Jews and that the Israeli government should take into account how its decisions affect the Diaspora.
The poll, released Wednesday and commissioned by the Jewish Media Summit underway in Jerusalem, found that 62 percent of respondents “believe that Jews in Israel and the Diaspora share a common fate, while 35 percent disagree.”
It also found that “71 percent of Israeli Jews think that the Government of Israel, when making important decisions, should take into consideration how the decision will influence the situation of Jews in the Diaspora, while 26 percent do not think it is necessary.”
The poll also found, however, that 60 percent of Israeli Jews consider themselves “a nation separate from the Jews abroad,” while 36 percent disagree.
A large majority, 81 percent, said they were interested in news of Diaspora Jewry, while 18 percent were not interested.
Israel’s government is hosting the Jewish Media Summit.
The Israel Democracy Institute carried out the poll of 477 respondents between May 8 and 11. It has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO